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ML Yacht Design Group

We have a very strong tradition of ocean racing at the design office and we turn this to our advantage in our production cruisers

Designer

marclombard.com

A VERY STRONG TRADITION OF OCEAN RACING

Manager of a team of ten, including his partner Eric Levet (an outstanding naval architect and designer), Lucien Wohler (stability studies) and Lionnel Huetz (PhD in hydrodynamics), Marc Lombard founded his own naval architect’s office in La Rochelle in 1982. As a young man, just out of design school in Southampton and keen on sailing with a crew, he delivered a boat with Mike Birch in 1978, before the latter went on to win the Route du Rhum on his little yellow trimaran designed by Walter Greene. He was then offered an internship at Walter Greene’s American boatyard. This was a the chance of a lifetime for Marc Lombard and an incredible experience that would forge his skills. In 1982, he decided to set up his own naval architect’s office to build racing boats.

I followed the Ostar race starts and I met a lot of racers. I worked for 25 years on racing boats from 1982 to 2005.

says Marc who designed Ker Cadelac, Crédit Agricole IV, Banque Populaire, Sill, Veolia, and Whirlpool. He continues to work on racers, while designing a large number of cruising yachts at the same time.

Beauty and design are always related to purpose

Large chined hull, inverted sheer, bowsprit, the Marc Lombard hallmark is easy to recognize. “A cruising yacht must be coherent and provide pleasure at sea. It must be as beautiful as it is sexy. Our vision of beauty is the overall effect of the volume distribution and this is always linked to purpose,” says Marc Lombard. An instant and long-standing success, ML Yacht Design designs many successful production boats for renowned boatyards such as the Bénéteau Group.

« “We like fast boats with their own distinctive personality. The boat that symbolizes our work best is the Figaro 2. She doesn’t look much, but she is a magnificent boat, a timeless classic that just keeps on giving…” » says the architect, whose approach is very cross-disciplinary, (sailing cargo ship, fast aerodynamically-lifted passenger boats, racing, cruising). ML Yacht Design is a leading naval architect’s office and has been producing a broad range of designs for nearly 40 years!

The designs of ML Yacht Design Group